Thanks to products like these, you can stay away from meat and eat a delicious burger too!

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Fantastic Faux Meat

As meat consumption drops, we can expect that more of us will be reaching for meat substitutes to fulfill our carnivorous cravings. Increasingly, meat substitutes are surprisingly convincing in taste, and sometimes even texture. There’s even a company doing vegan seafood now.

Says vegan Chêz Dishman, “I look for things with good flavor, not necessarily the same exact texture.”

The best meat substitutes, she says, “are well seasoned and hold up well on their own as well as layered with others things in a casserole or wrap”—and they’re reasonably priced.

Thank you, food science!

Photo: Hyoung Chang/Getty Images

Field Roast Sausages

Field Roast begins where all sausage lovers begin: with a grind, but of “grain meat” instead of pork. Next, they throw in some fresh vegetables—including eggplant, Yukon Gold potatoes, onions and garlic—zesty lemon juice, rich local red wine, and organic apple cider vinegar. Seasoned to perfection with fennel seed, sweet red pepper, sage, ginger, chipotle and chile de arbol, these sausages just might leave the “real thing” in the dust.

Photo: Field Roast

Tofurky Breakfast Sausage

What’s Saturday or Sunday morning breakfast without sausage links on your plate? Tofurky’s meatless version stands up to its animal-based counterpart, and while its sodium and fat content make it something you won’t want to eat every day, vegans and vegetarians like it for a special treat. “It’s mildly spicy, which I like to contrast with sweeter breakfast foods like pancakes,” Chêz Dishman says of the product

Photo: veganheathen/Flickr

Sunshine Veggie Burgers

In addition to being organic and GMO-free, Sunshine’s veggie burgers are also soy-free, which is increasingly important to many vegans. Besides the “original,” they come in a variety of flavors, including Garden Herb, BBQ, Falafel, Mushroom, Southwest, and Hemp & Sage. Julie Kelly, who publishes the popular Mighty Vegan blog, describes the burgers as “nutty and hearty.”

Photo: Sunshine Burgers

Beyond Meat Chicken-Free Strips

Beyond Meat is one of the most recent additions to the meat substitute market, and it would appear the company is already one of the leaders. Our testers were blown away by how convincing the Chick’n Strips are, comparing them to the frozen Tyson chicken strips. “It tasted freakishly like chicken,” Chêz Dishman says. “Like, it kind of freaked me out to eat it.” Alas, the strips are non-GMO, gluten-free, and, of course, vegan. One possible downside: the high price.

Photo: Beyond Meat/Instagram

Sophie’s Kitchen Vegan Seafood

Vegan seafood may freak out even some fake meat fans, but Sophie’s Kitchen seems to be doing it right. They make everything from scallops to prawns to crab cakes—all 100 percent vegan, gluten- and GMO-free (they’re kosher too). “We have used the shrimp in a shrimp po-boy before, and it hits the spot,” says New Orleans native Julie Kelly. “I make a vegan tartar sauce, and yum! Just like from home!”

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about takepart

TakePart — a digital news & lifestyle magazine and social action platform for the conscious consumer — is a division of Participant Media, the company behind Pivot Television Network and important films such as An Inconvenient Truth, Waiting For Superman, Food, Inc., Good Night & Good Luck, Charlie Wilson’s War, Contagion, The Help, and many others. Learn more about Participant Media.